Articles Tagged with Oakland injury lawyer

Every year, the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) releases what it calls its “Most Wanted List.”  This list represents the NTSB’s top advocacy priorities for the year, improvements to safety that the NTSB believes can make the biggest difference in preventing transportation accidents and saving lives.  Our San Francisco injury law firm shares the NTSB’s commitment to transportation safety and, while we advocate for injury victims in California every day, we know that prevention is always the best goal.

The following items are on the NTSB’s 2016 Most Wanted List:

  • Reduce Fatigue-Related Accidents: It is impossible to know exactly how many car accidents are due to drowsy driving, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration believes anywhere from 2% to 20% of yearly traffic fatalities are due to drowsy drivers.  The problem also extends to other areas of the transportation field and the NTSB identified fatigue as a probable cause in 20% of the Board’s 182 major investigations between 2001 and 2012.

With the hustle of life in 2016, it seems like a good night’s sleep is an increasingly rare commodity.  While some treat it as almost a luxury, sleep is essential to our physical and emotional well-being.   Being well-rested is also a critical part of being a safe driver.  People who wouldn’t dream of driving drunk are driving while sleep-deprived despite evidence that drowsy driving is a threat to everyone on the road.  Our Oakland car accident injury lawyer fights for the victims of drowsy driving accidents in Northern California because they deserve compensation and because it sends a message that overly tired driving is a danger that should not be tolerated.

Police Report San Jose Death Resulted from Driver Falling Asleep at the Wheel

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a man lost his life this past Sunday in San Jose because a driver apparently fell asleep at the wheel.  California Highway Patrol (“CHP”) officials say that the victim had pulled onto the shoulder of U.S. Highway 101, north of Alum Rock Avenue, to investigate car trouble when he was struck by a Ford Ranger.  The Ford’s driver told CHP officers that he had momentarily fallen asleep at the wheel and wasn’t initially sure what he had hit.  Police say the victim was a 60-year-old man from Daly City whose wife and children were in the car at the time of the deadly accident.  The crash occurred shortly after 4 PM.

The end of Daylight Savings Time is a yearly occurrence that many of us eagerly anticipate and dread in equal measures.  Many people reveled in an extra hour of rest this past weekend (at least those without young children whose sleep cycles don’t change simply because we adjusted our clocks!).  However, that extra hour of sleep comes at cost: lost daylight.  While many people worry about the impact on afternoon activities and even on people’s moods, at our Oakland injury law firm we worry about another danger – the tie between car accidents and daylight savings time.

Increased Risk of Car Accidents When Daylight Saving Time Ends

sunsetLast year, Time Magazine delved into the twice-yearly debate about changing the clocks, focusing on the impact of Daylight Savings Time (“DST”) on road safety.  The article suggests that losing an hour of afternoon sunlight, as we do each fall when DST ends, may result in an increased number of traffic accidents.  According to a 2004 study, the lives of some 170 pedestrians and 200 motorists could be saved each year by maintaining DST all year.

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